Employees reaping the financial benefits of working from home should be taxed to help other workers who aren’t getting the same advantages, experts at Deutsche Bank – which has a big software development operation in Cary – says in a new report.

“Working from home will be part of the ‘new normal’ well after the pandemic has passed. We argue that remote workers should pay a tax for the privilege,” the report’s authors say.

“Our calculations suggest the amounts raised could fund material income subsidies for low-income earners who are unable to work remotely and thus assume more ‘old economy’ and health risks.”

In its report on how to rebuild the economy after COVID-19, the bank proposed a 5% daily tax on each employee that continues to work from home, which could raise tens of billions of dollars for governments. The money could be used to help lower income workers who have taken on greater risk because their jobs can’t be done remotely, it said.

“A work-from-home tax People who can WFH and disconnect themselves from face-to-face society have gained many benefits during the pandemic,” the report says.

“A five per cent tax for each WFH day would leave the average person no worse off than if they worked in the office. It could raise $49bn per year in the US, €20bn in Germany, and £7bn in the UK. That can fund subsidies for the lowest-paid workers who usually cannot work from home.”

Such a tax would impact thousands of workers across the Triangle and North Carolina after they were told to work from home as the pandemic swept the state in March. And some firms have said they plan to maintain a WFH strategy into 2021.

The bank noted that the global pandemic has turbocharged the shift to remote work, a trend that looks set to last for the long term with many workers expecting to spend at least a few days of their work week at home even after the pandemic ends.

These workers benefit from more convenience and flexibility. They also save money directly because they don’t have to pay for commuting costs, takeout lunches, or buying and dry cleaning work clothes – but it means those businesses that have grown up to support office workers won’t be able to recover and “the economic malaise will be extended,” the report said.

While it doesn’t make sense for the government to support, say, a downtown sandwich shop if it doesn’t have any more customers from nearby office towers, “it does make sense to support the mass of people who have been suddenly displaced by forces outside their control,” the bank said. “From a personal and economic point of view, it makes sense that these people should be given a helping hand.”

The tax would amount to just over $10 a day, assuming the average salary of an American working from home is $55,000. That’s roughly the amount the worker might spend on commuting, lunch and laundry, which would leave them no worse off than going into the office, the report said. It could raise up to $48 billion in the U.S. Deutsche Bank carried out similar calculations for Germany and the U.K.

But the proposals faced heavy skepticism.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of job search engine Adzuna.co.uk said the idea was misguided and predicted it would be incredibly unpopular.

“It punishes progressive companies and those with kids or caring responsibilities, who were responsible during the pandemic, who are already taking on more costs and helping the environment by staying at home,” said Hunter. “Let’s be honest, there are many better ways to raise taxes!”